Inside The Bills

By now everyone knows Thad Lewis’ stat line for his only NFL start at Pittsburgh in last year’s season finale for the Cleveland Browns. 22-32 passing for 204 yards with a touchdown and an interception. But what did Lewis prove he could do well? Buffalobills.com took a look.

Browns head coach at the time, Pat Shurmur, used a lot of play action in the game even though the Cleveland rushing attack did not have much success. Anything to hold off a formidable pass rush even for a millisecond. Lewis worked well off play action particularly on passes over the middle.

More often than not Lewis’ throws were on target as evidenced by his 68 percent completion percentage. He seems especially sharp on seam throws to the tight end Ben Watson in the game.

He also was able to throw the 10 to 12 yard outs on a line to the sideline and put it on the player’s chest to effectively move the chains for Cleveland. In the short to intermediate areas he was pretty sharp as it was evident the Browns did not want to take too many chances in the passing game with Lewis.

On his touchdown pass he extended the play by rolling out of the pocket to his left and then found Greg Little in the back of the end zone. Not an easy throw for a right-handed QB. All in all it was an encouraging performance for him especially in a hostile road environment.

On Sunday he’ll have a home crowd behind him. What will be interesting is if Buffalo takes a similar approach with Lewis, focusing on high percentage throws in the short to intermediate areas of the field. We’re also curious to see if the Bills choose to have him make plays on the move with some designed bootlegs and rollouts.